


hawaiian roller coaster ride

by shaketheuniverse



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Hawaii, Hawaiian Character, M/M, Zoo, expedition unknown themed lmao, lance majors in dance and zoology, mentions of law and order: svu, nbc website is used, nocturnal gardens, shiro hates eels, there's a time jump, they don't fuck in this one sorry, voltron is a tv show
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-05 12:57:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15171242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shaketheuniverse/pseuds/shaketheuniverse
Summary: Five years ago, before the University of Hawai’i, before two bachelor’s degrees, Lance loved a boy.





	hawaiian roller coaster ride

**Author's Note:**

> look so i was watching expedition unknown bc i'm white and they had to evacuate a site suddenly bc of storms so that's where this bullshit came from
> 
> love me

Lance is a Moloka’i native, but he moves to the main island to go to college. He majors in zoology and dance, and he occasionally teaches at a nearby dance studio. Usually, he just works in the Panaʻewa Rainforest Zoo, running the ghost tours that he just barely convinced his boss to start. The tours consist of a bunch of jumpscares, complete with a demon version of the recently deceased white Bengal tiger, Namaste. He’s quite proud of his diy skills, all of which went into the best decision of his life. However, Lance has to drop the ghost tours tonight.

Tonight, he just has to chill with the several baby peacocks while outside, his coworkers host a gala to celebrate all the recent funds. Now, it would be a lie to say that Lance would rather watch the peacocks inside, but he’s still totally fine with watching Law and Order: SVU on the NBC website while making sure the baby peacocks don’t die. He’s watching Olivia Benson go off on her lawyer when it happens.

“Hello?” some guy says, clearly not sure what he’s looking for.

“Bathrooms are outside and to the left. Right next to the lemurs. If you see the tigers, you’ve gone too far. If you see a large white tiger, you’ve definitely gone too far,” Lance rattles off, response regular and planned. This guy is the third person to walk in.

“Holy fuck, Lance?”

_Hell motherfucking no._

Five years ago, before the University of Hawaii, before two bachelor’s degrees, before _everything_ , Lance loved a boy.

* * *

 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, is that an eel?” the investigator, Takashi Shirogane, asks, alarm creeping into his voice like the eel crept into the surrounding waters. Lance automatically moves to shield the dude from the animal as the investigator climbs out before joining him on the boat. The eel quickly slithers away, slipping beneath the turquoise green sea. Once the coast is clear, Lance drops back in happily, treading water while he discusses the story behind the cliff above him. Supposedly, on the cliff above them, a crazy religious leader dropped five children, all between infancy and the age of fifteen, to their drowning deaths. Or so legend croons. The truth is probably more mundane, more pg, but still, the tale of the crazy high priest and the five children, certainly old enough to understand the truth, dances in the smoke of bonfires.

That's what he told Keith, at least.

Keith Kogane is part of Takashi’s show on the Discovery Channel. It's called “Voltron” and it follows Takashi and his team (Keith, Katie “Pidge” Holt, and Allura Altea) as they investigate international urban legends. Today, though, they're just in Hawaii, talking to Lance about the high priest. In a week, the team sets off for Japan and another story, but for now, Keith is all Lance’s.

“Legend says that when there's no moon in the sky, you can hear cries from the cliff,” Lance finishes. Thankfully, no eels show up, and he's done his job on camera.

“And that's what we're gonna try to do tonight,” Takashi looks at the camera. The director calls a cut, and Lance and Takashi swim over to the ladder that is held down for them.

“Lance, you can head out if you want. The rest of today's mostly gonna be drone shots for the opening. We’ll see you on the cliff ‘round seven, right?” Allura smiles, implying that they _will_ see him at the cliff and she is _not_ actually asking.

“Totally. See y'all,” Lance beams, swimming toward shore.

* * *

 

Seven comes and goes and the night goes well. There are a few distant cries, but as a local, Lance knows the whimpers come from kids and babies inside homes with open windows.

Midway through the night, Keith and Lance manage to slip away, claiming to be investigating one of the aforementioned cries. In reality, they're investigating this nocturnal garden Lance finished weeks ago. Hunk refuses to come because it's so dark, so Lance has been dying to show someone his beautiful secret. Luckily, Keith showed up just in time.

“Okay, so like, I only cleared a path for one, so we’ve gotta go single file. Follow my lead,” Lance explains, stepping carefully over roots using his flashlight to point to them.

“Jesus, did you even clear a path?” Keith laughs, following the careful steps in an attempt to avoid an injury and subsequent interrogation from Pidge.

“Oh, fuck off. We're almost there,” the brunette chuckles, bouncing between three roots before stepping into a clearing. When Keith joins him, he can't believe what he sees.

The garden is kinda small, but what it lacks in size it makes up in beauty. Casablanca lilies, moon flowers, evening primroses, and even a few night bloom lilies in a tiny birdbath.

“Did you…you planted all of this?” Keith mutters, turning around to take it all in.

“My pride and joy,” Lance replies proudly.

Before Keith can say anything, before he can do anything, there's a crack of thunder. He turns the GoPro on and tells Lance to get them out of there.

They climb and jump and dodge and duck until finally they're back at the base camp with the Voltron team. The rain came in fast and violent, pounding on the camp.

“Thanks for getting me back safely, Lance. See you tomorrow night to finish out the investigation?” Keith asks, but like Allura, he isn't really asking.

“Totally. See y'all tomorrow,” he waves before retreating into the forest canopy.

Tomorrow night doesn't come. As a matter of fact, the storm forces the team off the island in order to keep the viewing schedule. There's no time for goodbye, and when Lance gets there that night, nothing remains except a jade rosary. He picks it up, curiously, and looks it over. It is engraved and beautiful, not to mention that it's definitely expensive. But perhaps the reason Lance picks it up and tucks it in his shirt pocket is the tiny “K” carved into the back of the cross pendant at the bottom.

* * *

“Are you okay?”

Five years. Five years of heartbreak and loneliness and burning out and hurting and for what? For this guy to just appear? At the zoo? Lance should go off! Lance should let him feel the pain that came from modern dancing and from fish bites and from everything, _everything_. Lance should scream at him.

“Uh, yeah. What are you doing here?” Lance stumbles over his words while struggling to pause his laptop.

“Voltron donates to the zoo. Do you, like, work here or something?” Keith asks, looking everywhere but at Lance.

“Yeah. I’m a zookeeper,” he replies. Duh.

“Cool.”  
  
Silence. Aside from a peacock screeching.

“Should you uh-”  
  
“Yeah, yeah, he’s fine. Where were you?"

Keith steps back. “Excuse me?”

Lance moves forward. “Where did you go?”

“A lot of places,” Keith shrugs. “I saw the whole world, pretty much.”

“Uh-huh. Saw the whole universe and didn’t even think to say goodbye before you did,” Lance spits. He knows that he can’t actually blame Keith for this, but he really hopes Keith doesn’t.

“Didn’t say goodbye? What, five years ago? I was a kid. I didn’t even know where you _lived_. How could I have said goodbye?” Keith shouts back. A peacock squeals. Lance goes to help it.

“I just-I thought we had something. But clearly, I was wrong,” Lance replies, quieter now. He mutters something to the peacock before standing up straight. Then he lifts the rosary over his head and walks over to Keith, handing it to him gently.

“Take this back, and leave,” he whispers, returning to his laptop to absentmindedly watch more Law and Order.

“What-if you think this conversation is over you have another thing coming. Can’t we, like, try again?” Keith asks, walking over to the laptop and closing it.

“How would we even do that? You travel for a _living_ , and I work two jobs in Hawaii,” Lance replies, but he’s gentler now.

“I’ll-I’ll quit. I’ll go to college or something. Shiro will understand,” Keith argues.

“You can’t do that. You’re giving up everything for a _guy_ , Keith,” Lance fights back.

“I love you! I’ve loved you since we met! Isn’t that enough for you?” Keith shouts. A peacock screams louder. Lance goes to feed them.

“I love _you_ . But I can’t ask you to give up your career for me,” Lance whisper-shouts, just loud enough to be hard.  
“Lance-”  
  
“Please, just leave.”  
  
For some reason, Lance expected Keith to fight a bit more. He doesn’t. Keith walks out the door and towards the bathroom.

* * *

 

God, it must be three in the morning by the time Lance gets out of that godforsaken room with the peacocks. He stumbles out of the room, tired and pissed off. He should’ve been out there at that party, should’ve been flirting with the donors. But no. He smells like bird shit and his hair is a mess and he has rewatched season nineteen of Law and Order like a million times.

“Lance, we need to talk,” Keith breathes, sitting in Lance’s truck bed.

“God, I really hope I’m fucking hallucinating that. Why are you in my truck?” he sighs.

“I’m in your truck because I need you to listen to me,” the boy begs.

Lance gestures for him to begin.

“I-I don’t care about my career or whatever. I can pick it back up in a few years. With you. I want to be with you forever. I don’t care if we’ve, like, met twice. I love you. I think I always have. And I’m like a million percent sure I always will,” Keith explains, fumbling around.

“Keith, I-”

“If you don’t love me anymore, say it now. I’ll call an uber.”

“Wait, Shiro didn’t, like, wait for you?” Lance asks.

“You didn’t hear it from me, but Shiro’s...uh...he’s...yeah,” Keith mutters.

“Oh my god! Who’s he with?” the zookeeper giggles.

“Some nerdy looking guy. I think they knew each other in college or something.”

“Fucking, oh my god, he’s having sex with Matt. Oh my god. That’s the funniest shit. Matt is so-” Lance laughs.

“I know right! He’s so not Shiro’s type,” Keith giggles back.

“That is priceless! I’m gonna tease him about this until the next fucking century!” Lance exclaims. He’s so hyped. So ready to ruin Matt’s life.

“Pidge is going to throw a fit,” Keith laughs. She’s going to hate it when she finds out that the guy her brother’s fucking is her boss.

They make fun of Matt and Shiro for another few minutes before settling into a comfortable silence.

“Wow, I’m gonna miss you.”

“Not if I stay,” Keith starts, cutting Lance off before they keep arguing. “I want to be with you for the foreseeable future. And if it goes bad, kick me out. I’ll hop right back in with Voltron. But let’s give it a fuck-all shot, right?”

Lance looks at Keith. He wants to say no, say “get out, you need to stay with Shiro.” He wants to do the right thing. He takes a breath.

“Let’s fucking do it!”


End file.
